Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe is not happy to face Manchester United in the Carabao Cup

Speaking to NUFC TV as quoted by Manchester Evening News, Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has admitted that he would have preferred not to face Manchester United so early in the Carabao Cup.

Newcastle United defeated Manchester City 1-0 to book their place in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, where they will face last night’s opponent’s local rivals, Man United

Speaking to NUFC TV (h/t Manchester Evening News), Eddie Howe stated:

“It’s another top team but we’ve proved tonight that we’ve made changes to the group and we’ve won a very difficult game so I’m sure United will be equally as difficult but we’ll try and win. It’s the only way that we can view it [to win]. We’ll get to that game when we get to it, we don’t know where we’ll be in terms of our team, players and the selection of players we’ll have available”

“The way we’re going and the competitions we’re in, we’re playing elite teams all the time and we have to get used to it. It’s the only way we improve ourselves. It’s not maybe the draw we wanted but we respect United and how they do things but we’ll have to face it.”

Facing the Magpies would represent a rematch of last year’s Carabao Cup final. United were brilliant against them on that day with Marcus Rashford and Casemiro scoring and ensuring the first trophy under Erik ten Hag was in the bag.

As he led Newcastle United past Manchester City and into the Carabao Cup fourth round, Howe did something that not many teams have managed to do in recent times – beat Pep Guardiola’s side.

Defeating the defending Premier League champions is a big deal. It shows that Newcastle are no pushovers. United will look to take this tie seriously. One advantage for United will be that the game will be played at Old Trafford. Despite losing to Brighton at home at the beginning of the season, the club still might have an upper hand in this tie.

A convincing 3-0 win against Crystal Palace helped United advance and they now have a date with the Magpies. With goals from Alejandro Garnacho, Casemiro, and Anthony Martial, a much-changed team put up one of their best performances of this season.

Erik ten Hag’s men will want to do better than just the Carabao Cup this season. Only then does it mean we are seeing progress. The first few weeks haven’t been good but it looks to be changing for the better.

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Newcastle will come to Old Trafford with renewed confidence and self-belief. Man United must be wary, bring their A-game and move forward into the next rounds.